Charges upgraded after victim dies

Posted: Tuesday, May 15, 2007

An Athens man was charged with felony murder and malice murder Monday after the man he is accused of shooting a week ago in west Athens died, Athens-Clarke police said.

Stacy Demarko Barnett, 28, died about 11 p.m. Sunday while still on the life support systems that had kept him alive since being shot the night of May 5 outside a Westchester Drive condominium, according to police.

Witnesses told investigators Barnett was attending a party at the condo when 33-year-old Dorunte Cortez Williams came to the door shortly before 11 p.m. and asked for Barnett by name, police said.

Barnett, of North Billups Street, went outside with Williams and was shot once in the neck at close range, police said.

The party Barnett was attending was a gathering of about 10 people to watch the pay-per-view boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, police said.

Partygoers recognized Williams when he came to the door, but none of the witnesses knew of possible reasons the man would have to shoot Barnett, according to police.

Barnett, who had an Alpharetta address, used to live on Lombardy Circle, less than five miles from where Williams once lived with a girlfriend on North Bluff Drive, police said.

The victim has family in Athens.

Barnett's death was the first confirmed homicide in Athens-Clarke County this year, although two days before Barnett died the bodies of two Norcross men were found in a manhole in western Clarke County.

Police said brothers Caesar Portillo and Israel Portillo, both reported missing to Norcross police on April 20, had no known local ties and could have been killed elsewhere before their bodies were dumped in a subdivision being built off U.S. Highway 78 in Bogart.